One man's war on terrorism

You want to make Greg Mortenson laugh? Ask him whether his life has ever been threatened. He could talk about the time he tried — and failed — to climb one of the world's deadliest mountains. Or how Afghan warlords kidnapped him for eight days. Or how he choked from the stench of rancid goat hides that hid him in the back of a truck as he escaped a gunfight. Life isn't quite as dangerous this week, as the Roseville native enjoys a media tour for his new book, "Three Cups of Tea." The biography recounts the Indiana Jones adventures he endured to promote a new way to fight terrorism — building schools for Muslim girls. As the head of the Montana-based Central Asia Institute, the former self-proclaimed drifter has founded 55 schools in the world's most dangerous places — the tribal territories of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border that hide Taliban and al-Qaida terrorists. To date, those schools have educated 20,000 children

Publishers Weekly, January 2006

Starred Review. Some failures lead to phenomenal successes, and this American nurse's unsuccessful attempt to climb K2, the world's second tallest mountain, is one of them. Dangerously ill when he finished his climb in 1993, Mortenson was sheltered for seven weeks by the small Pakistani village of Korphe; in return, he promised to build the impoverished town's first school, a project that grew into the Central Asia Institute, which has since constructed more than 50 schools across rural Pakistan and Afghanistan. Coauthor Relin recounts Mortenson's efforts in fascinating detail, presenting compelling portraits of the village elders, con artists, philanthropists, mujahideen, Taliban officials, ambitious school girls and upright Muslims Mortenson met along the way. As the book moves into the post-9/11 world, Mortenson and Relin argue that the United States must fight Islamic extremism in the region through collaborative efforts to alleviate poverty and improve access to education, especially for girls. Captivating and suspenseful, with engrossing accounts of both hostilities and unlikely friendships, this book will win many readers' hearts. (Mar.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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